this Texas Aggie magazine story - The Association of Former Students

‘Traditions are not born on the form of sudden
revelation but rather as a gradually accelerating,
expanding philosophical acceptance by all. And this
tradition started in the most minute origin, and became
nationwide, and it is a joy to me that it has happened.’
–George Comnas ’35
The First
Lady of
Aggieland
By Krista Smith ’09
I
t was Aug. 30, the first home game for the
Aggies. The eyes of the more than 80,000 in
attendance turned to the end zone. Sitting
there was a panting dog, bedecked in maroon
and white finery.
“Look! It’s her!”
“There she is! The new one! Isn’t she gorgeous?”
And when her image flashed on the giant video
screen a few seconds later, an all-out roar of applause and whoops erupted.
After Reveille VII’s retirement was announced
in February, it took a lengthy process to find the
new mascot. But Reveille VIII was finally home.
She has been formally installed as First Lady
of Aggieland and continues a fabled legacy rich
with tradition.
aggienetwork.com
NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2008 | Texas Aggie
63
Photo Courtesy Of Cushing Memorial Library And Archives
Reveille I marked the start of many
traditions, including that a cadet has to give
up his bed if Reveille wants to rest on it.
Rev I: An Accidental Beginning
S
he’s arguably one of the most recognizable dogs in the country, but
the origins of how Reveille came to
call Texas A&M home are murky. More
than 30 people lay claim to bringing the
mutt to campus in the 1930s, but some
tales are more believable than others.
There’s Warren Collins ’35, who said
he picked up a puppy after hitting it with
his Model T. There’s Bob Norwood ’35,
who said he and a roommate found the
dog in a ditch by Walton Hall. Then there
are the members of the class of 1934 who
swear they picked up the dog on a march
to the Brazos River, as well as Asa Gibbs
’37, who said he and a friend found the
dog in a ditch near Northgate. And then
there’s Eddie Chew, an assistant groundskeeper for the athletic department, who
swore that the pup in question was born
on his property south of campus.
But there’s one Reveille origin tale
that carries more clout than the others.
George Comnas ’35 said in his 1980 campus Muster speech that he was responsible for finding and caring for Reveille I.
In a series of letters written to University officials after the speech, Comnas
discusses specifics on when, where and
how Reveille I was found.
Comnas, then a sophomore, and some
friends were hitchhiking from Navasota
to Bryan during a midterm break in January 1932; they arrived at a highway gate
on the south side of campus, across from
a railroad station. Comnas said cadets
were disembarking from the station as
64
Texas Aggie | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2008
he and his friends arrived. That’s when
Comnas, flanked by 25 to 30 cadets, noticed a whimpering puppy lying alongside the road, “apparently hit by a slow
moving train and knocked into the ditch.”
Comnas picked up the puppy—which he
described as a fox terrier and mongrel
mix—and brought her to his dorm room
in Leggett Hall, raiding Sbisa Dining Hall
for meat and bread to feed her.
A&M enforced a strict no-pets policy,
so the puppy lived in a box under Com-
Your Dollars At Work
The Association of Former Students
is proud to support the tradition of
Reveille, providing assistance with
transportation and lodging when
Reveille and her handler travel
to out-of-town football games.
the faults of the others: the year and
timing does not match up, the dog’s
physical description is wrong, the location of the discovery is not documented, the chronological events are out of
order. Comnas does write, however,
that some of the cadets who claimed to
have found Reveille were actually present when she was discovered, but did
not pick her up or care for her. To support his story, Comnas even had three
fellow B Troop Cavalry cadets vouch
for his tale in sworn affidavits.
George Comnas may swear by his story, but so do the others. Lisa Kalmus ’93,
curator of the Sanders Corps of Cadets
Center, notes that although the plotlines
of the various stories may be inconsistent, they all have a happy ending.
“In all of the stories, [Reveille] was
incapacitated in some way and brought
She began making trips out of town with her cadets
and quickly became a regular part of campus life,
especially since she loved to march with the Fightin’
Texas Aggie Band, much to the delight of football fans.
nas’ bed as his dorm neighbor, veterinary
student Robert Anderson ’35, monitored
her health. In about four or five days,
Comnas wrote, the puppy rebounded.
Comnas said he named the spirited
dog Reveille since he was forced to put
her into hiding before the bugler blew
Reveille and Assembly each morning.
The name was one that stuck, as “on her
first day of convalescence, she rushed
out into the street when we fell out for
reveille and calisthenics,” prompting the
cadets to say, “Here comes our Reveille.”
Comnas is also the only finder of
Reveille on record to pick apart each
of the other origin stories. In another
letter to the University, Comnas argues
why his version is the truth by stating
back to campus,” Kalmus said. “And
then she just became theirs. The cadets
took on mutual care for her, and everyone played a part in her life and was
connected to her.”
Reveille I, a black and white dog,
roamed campus as she pleased and snuck
into buildings, restaurants and dorm
rooms. She began making trips out of
town with her cadets and quickly became a regular part of campus life, especially since she loved to march with the
Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band, much to the
delight of football fans. With World War
II taking many Aggies overseas a few
years later, the student body rallied to
purchase Reveille’s first official ranking
as a general for $100 in the K-9 unit of
aggienetwork.com
1932-44
the WAGS division of Dogs for Defense,
an action that was open to dog owners in
the United States to sponsor the war effort. Reveille I cemented her legacy after
her role in the 1943 Aggie film We’ve
Never Been Licked and was accepted as a
tradition by A&M administrators.
But shortly after the film was released,
Reveille I died in the A&M Veterinary
Hospital, presumably of old age. Her
casket, lined in maroon velvet, was
purchased by H.S. Dan Boone ’46 for
$15. With hundreds of people present,
Reveille I, the campus queen, was laid
to rest with full military honors on the
north end of Kyle Field. And with that,
a tradition that had grown to become a
staple of the Aggie Spirit for more than a
decade simply faded away.
The Others
W
and love of the student body. Ranger I,
Ranger II and Ranger III, the pet English
bulldogs of former A&M President James
Earl Rudder ’32, were also popular campus figures, but were also never named
official mascots. A Dalmatian named Spot
came along after Freckles departed, but
the accident-prone dog was remembered
for falling off the top of Kyle Field (only
one deck at the time) and breaking two
paws. Shortly after recovering from these
injuries, The Battalion reported in October 1950, Spot died after being hit by a car.
The student body finally had enough
of the inconsistency. A&M needed a
legitimate mascot, so in April 1951, the
Corps of Cadets voted to find an official
mascot who would be christened with
the name Reveille. The student senate
approved a motion to begin fundraising to procure a German shepherd, but
was not able to raise sufficient funds to
purchase the dog. That’s when Arthur
Weinert, Class of 1900, and his wife
stepped in to help. The Weinerts presented Grady Smallwood ’52, president
of the senate, with a Shetland shepherd
puppy in 1952. Reveille II had finally
found her way to Aggieland.
ith Reveille I gone and World
War II ending, any effort to
find a new mascot was delayed. In June 1946, more than two years
after Reveille I’s death, Rusty, a 4-month
old black mongrel puppy, was presented
to the college by a student veteran. And
so began an eight-year parade of different
dogs as mascots, some endorsed by the
Rev II: A Dying Tradition Reborn
student body, others simply adopted and
eveille II was adopted by the
loved by a single Corps unit. Rusty, who
cadets, and her original caretaker
from all accounts was no fan of people
was the Aggie Band. However,
and loud noise, lasted until November
today Reveille’s needs are tended to by
1946, when Freckles, a cocker spaniel
owned by Hal “Moon” Mullins ’48,
appeared at a football game.
Because of the positive reaction
of the mascot-deprived crowd to
Freckles’ boundless energy, The
Battalion immediately launched a
campaign to have the student body
vote for Freckles as mascot—a vote
that ended overwhelmingly in
Freckles’ favor.
Although Freckles had the same
privileges as Reveille I, she was
never noted as an official mascot
by the college and after Mullins
was commissioned in 1948, FreckSam Netterville ’55
les left campus with him. Tip and
falls into formation with
Tripod, a three-legged dog, appear
Reveille II, a Shetland
shepherd. Netterville is
in Corps history during this time,
recognized as the first
but each were cult figures only,
mascot corporal.
as neither gained the acceptance
Photo Courtesy Of Sam Netterville ’55
R
Reveille I
1952-66
Reveille II
1966-75
Reveille III
1975-84
Reveille IV
1984-93
Reveille V
1993-2001
Reveille VI
2001-08
Reveille VII
2008Reveille VIII
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65
classes dismiss
Q Do
when she barks?
It depends. Some professors abide
by this tradition; others don’t. However, Sean Cook ’10, mascot corporal
for spring 2008, said he has heard
of many a class getting dismissed by
Reveille’s bark. “It doesn’t happen
often,” he said. “She’s just like most
college students when she goes to
class—she hangs out for a little bit
and then falls asleep.”
Photo Courtesy Of Cushing Memorial
Library And Archives
Reveille IV naps in class.
her name appear
Q Does
on the class roster?
No. Reveille’s name is not listed on
a course’s roster. But, Cook said, the
mascot corporals alert their professors prior to the semester starting to
let them know that Reveille will be
coming to class regularly. In nearly
all circumstances, the professors are
accepting of Reveille’s presence unless
the class is not dog-friendly.
Q
Does she really have her own
credit card, cell phone and
ID card?
Yes. Reveille did have a credit card,
but now, Cook said, her finances are
handled a bit differently, making the
credit card no longer necessary. She
also has a fully functioning cell phone
provided by the University, which the
mascot corporal carries with him at
all times. The phone is used to verify
Reveille’s appearances with officials in
the Memorial Student Center, Com-
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Texas Aggie | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2008
mandant’s Office and hosts. Reveille
also has a student ID card, identical to
the ones issued to all current students.
The ID card is activated, allowing
Reveille access to her dormitory; however, she does not have any meal plans
or AggieBucks on her account.
Reveille also has her own iPod. Rev
VII’s white Nano was a present from
the class of 2010 on her birthday in
2006. With the back inscribed “Happy
birthday, Miss Reveille, ma’am,” it was
loaded with only Aggie music, including songs played by the Fightin’ Texas
Aggie Band and by country singer
Granger Smith ’02. And yes, Cook
said, Reveille does listen to her iPod’s
music, as her handler frequently plugs
it into a speaker system for her and
the rest of E-2 to hear.
Company E-2.
“That transition isn’t clear,” Kalmus
said. “We just know that it happened
since E-2 cares for her now.”
But Sam Netterville ’55 said he knows.
It was the summer of 1954. Reveille II
had been on campus for two years and
had had a litter of 10 puppies—the only
A&M mascot to do so. Netterville’s friend
Larry Hill ’56 was passing by the Memorial Student Center one day and noticed
Reveille II on the drill field. The dog was
unattended, and appeared hungry and
dirty. Hill fed Reveille II breakfast in the
MSC and then took the dog to class with
him. Netterville met Reveille II as she
journeyed to his and Hill’s hometown
falls asleep on a cadet’s
Q Ifbed,shedoes
he have to let her
sleep there?
Yes. Probably one of the oldest
traditions linked to Reveille, as it dates
back to Reveille I, a cadet has to accommodate Reveille if she rests on his
bed. Though Reveille VII usually preferred a closet or floor to a bed, Cook
said there were quite a few times
when he had to surrender his bed to
the First Lady of Aggieland, especially
when the two were traveling together.
Reveille accompany her
Q Does
mascot corporal on dates?
Yes. Reveille goes anywhere and everywhere her handler goes, 24 hours a
day, seven days a week. If that’s a date,
then she’s with him. If it’s at a home or
away Aggie football game, she’s with
him. And even if he’s at George W.
Bush’s inauguration, you can bet she’s
at his side. The only time the mascot
corporal does not have Reveille in his
possession is if another member of
E-2 is caring for the mascot.
Reveille II
of Beaumont throughout the summer.
When the fall semester began, Netterville, a junior in A Company Quartermaster, kept the dog in his dorm room. A
Company Quartermaster was renamed
as Company E-2 when the Corps units
were reassigned in 1959.
“She wasn’t as prominent then as she
is now,” Netterville said. “I had to fight
like hell to keep her in the spotlight
because no one cared.”
Netterville soon ran into the problem
of affording Reveille II’s upkeep. When
he appealed to the dean of students, he
was told Reveille II did not formally belong to the college or the state of Texas,
making funding impossible. Netterville
resorted to placing waste cans in Sbisa
Dining Hall for cadets to throw their
spare change into and accepting donations from his stepfather, C.N. Magee ’34.
Unlike her namesake, Reveille II did
not freely wander campus—she was
kept on a leash and stayed at Netterville’s side, though this activity was not
endorsed by the college.
aggienetwork.com
Photo Courtesy Of Sam Netterville ’55
The Truth About Miss Rev
TOP and bottom left photos: courtesy of Glen Johnson
Circle Photo: Courtesy Of cushing memorial library and archive
“She went to the movies, church, home
with me, on dates,” he said. “She stayed
in some of the finest hotels in Texas. I did
all of this unofficially.”
And with this simple action, Sam
Netterville spent the next two years
unknowingly developing the modern
tradition of Reveille.
Netterville escorted Reveille II to
football games, where she would proudly
march with the Aggie Band. She earned
a reputation as a naughty girl, however,
since she had a bad habit of relieving
herself on the field. As a result, Aggies
would place bets on which yard line Reveille II would choose each week. College
officials ordered Netterville to keep the
dog in her harness at a game vs. Rice in
1955 to avoid her usual restroom break,
but with 70,000 Aggies yelling for their
beloved mascot, Netterville let Reveille
II ease out of her harness using a trick he
had taught her.
“The crowd went wild,” he said. Reveille II did indeed take care of business,
much to the delight of the crowd, and
Netterville was able to talk himself out of
punishment the following Monday.
Netterville was named commanding
officer of A Company Quartermaster in
fall 1955. Even though Reveille II still
slept in Netterville’s room every night, he
began delegating daily tasks of Reveille
II’s care regiment to underclassmen
because of his new responsibilities—
another enduring tradition.
“Reveille II was recognized and adopted, but there wasn’t a university tie,”
Kalmus said. “Sam Netterville codified
the Reveille tradition and said, hey, this
is how we’re taking care of her, this is
whose responsibility it is.”
Netterville graduated in 1955, leaving
Reveille II in the care of A Company
Quartermaster, where she stayed until
her death in 1966 from kidney failure
and arthritis.
Revs III Through VI: A Collie Affair
T
he reign of the collie was one
that started out innocently
enough. Reveille II was nearing
the end of her life, and the University was
looking for a replacement. Randy ’67 and
Steve ’67 Andes knew they had the per-
aggienetwork.com
Revs V and VI
Rev IV
fect solution. The twin brothers called
their parents, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Husa
of Fairbanks, Alaska, who had a litter of
collie puppies on the way. And before
Reveille III was even born, the student
senate had already approved a measure
to welcome the collie puppy as mascot.
But why the collie? The breed is
known to be intelligent, obedient and
good with children, making it a good fit
for the new University. Another selling
point was the breed’s recognition in
pop culture, since the television show
Lassie was in the middle of its near 20year run.
“A&M was more recognized through
academics and sports,” Kalmus said. “It
brought about the need to set this standard image. That’s one of the reasons for
sticking with the collie. She’s a recognizable, iconographic image.”
Revs VII and VI
And so began the parade of collies:
some slender and fine-boned, some with
thicker coats, some with darker markings, but collies all the same.
“Reveilles III through VII have been
the standard collie breed,” Kalmus said.
“All of them had their own little quirks,
but they weren’t that distinguishable
from each other because physically they
looked the same.”
No matter their nearly identical outward appearances, Reveilles III through
VI each had unique personalities, preferences and distinctions. Reveille III, from
all accounts, was loveable, but not the
sharpest tool in the shed. Reveille IV was
the first mascot to have her own expense
account; before it was established, the
mascot corporal and E-2 cadets paid for
her upkeep. Reveille V had a habit of
stealing erasers from the chalkboard or
NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2008 | Texas Aggie
67
Reveille VIII on her bed with her
Bevo chew toy and 12th Man towel.
dry erase board as a professor lectured, delivering the stolen item to a
student in the class. As for Reveille VI,
she is known for one incident Aggies
would like to forget—being stolen as a
4-month-old pup from the Dallas backyard of then-handler Jim Lively in 1993
by Neil Andrew Sheffield, a University
of Texas at Austin student. A&M denied
for nearly a week that Reveille VI had
been stolen, but once the University
admitted she had been dognapped,
Sheffield tied her leash to a signpost at
Lake Travis and tipped off authorities to
her location. Slightly flea-infested, Reveille VI returned to College Station for
a veterinarian examination and made a
quick recovery to cheer on the Aggies at
the 1994 Cotton Bowl.
All of the Reveilles have been laid to rest
with full military honors surrounded by
thousands of mourners at the north end
of Kyle Field, with their noses and paws
pointed toward the scoreboard. However,
the Reveilles were exhumed in 1997 and
moved to a temporary location in Cain
Park for two years when the University
expanded the north end of the stadium.
When construction was complete in 1999,
the Reveilles were returned to their new
cemetery, which had been outfitted with
a scoreboard since their original view was
disturbed by the expansion.
After Reveille VI’s early retirement in
2001 due to epilepsy and other ailments,
Aggies met Reveille VII.
Rev VII: A Cadet’s Best Friend
A
purebred hailing from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Reveille VII arrived
in Aggieland in 2001. Coming to
Texas A&M at the start of the new millennium piled more responsibilities on
Reveille VII than any of her predecessors.
She is the most traveled mascot in Texas
A&M history.
A particularly spirited pup, Reveille
VII made headlines when the decision
was made to send her to obedience
school because of her initial nervousness around crowds and loud noises. The
dog—which her E-2 buddies don’t hesitate to call the most beautiful that A&M
had ever seen—also found her name in
the papers when she bit then-mascot
corporal Pierce Hunter ’10 last fall when
Hunter stepped on her tail during a run.
It wasn’t the rumors of cadet-biting or
misbehavior that caused Dean Bresciani,
then-vice president of student affairs, to
announce in February that Aggieland’s
First Lady would be retiring. Rather,
Bresciani said that University officials,
E-2 cadets and veterinarians felt Reveille
VII’s high profile and busy lifestyle could
speak for itself.
“There is no university mascot that is
used as intensively as Reveille,” Bresciani
said. “She has earned this retirement.”
Reveille VII may have lived a glamorous life on campus, but her retirement
home in Bryan with caretakers Paul ’66
and Tina Gardner is a welcome vacation,
said Sean Cook ’10, Reveille VII’s last
mascot corporal.
“You couldn’t ask for two better people
for her to be with,” Cook said. “She’s
getting to calm down and lead the life of
a dog. She can throw in the towel and say
she had a good run.”
5:15 a.m. Reveille and her handler wake up, get dressed and meet the rest of Company E-2 outside for a morning run.
6:30 a.m. E-2 falls into formation after cleaning up following their run. Reveille waits and then leads the company into Duncan Dining Hall for breakfast.
7:15 a.m.
With breakfast over, Reveille and her handler return to his dorm room, where Reveille is served her own breakfast. Everything needed to properly care for Reveille—including food, brushes and toys—is kept in the mascot corporal’s dorm room.
8 a.m.-
4:15 p.m.
During the day, Reveille’s schedule varies depending on her handler’s classes and her social calendar.
She accompanies the mascot corporal to his classes, plays outside on the Quad when she has
a break and makes any appearances that have been scheduled for her.
4:30 p.m. Reveille meets back up with all of her E-2 buddies, as the outfit prepares for an afternoon
physical activity. If it’s an intramural game, Reveille cheers her boys on; if it’s another run,
she runs along with them.
6 p.m. E-2 falls back into formation, and Reveille leads them back to Duncan for dinner.
6:40 p.m. Reveille and her handler return to his dorm room for the night. She is fed her dinner,
and usually dozes while her handler works on homework.
10 p.m. It’s bedtime for Reveille and the mascot corporal. Both retire for the evening, ready to get a full
night’s sleep and start their routine all over again in the morning.
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Texas Aggie | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2008
aggienetwork.com
Photo By Mickey Kepler ‘09
top photo by john busch ’11
A Day In The Life Of Aggieland’s First Lady
Cook’s experiences with Reveille VII
are memories he will carry with him for
the rest of his life. There was the time
Cook returned to his dorm room to find
Reveille sleeping in his closet with her
head stuffed into one of his cowboy
boots. Then there were all of the times
Cook had to polish his shoes extra hard
since Reveille had lovingly scratched
their surface. Or there were countless
times Cook took Reveille, who he described as a Frisbee enthusiast, outdoors
for a game of fetch.
And there are more memories to come,
as Cook regularly visits the Gardners’
home to visit his former charge, who
now lives with two other furry friends.
“It’s hard to let go of her,” he said.
“She’s definitely a man’s best friend … a
cadet’s best friend. She belongs to the
Aggies, to A&M. She is the Aggie Spirit.”
Rev VIII: Not In Kansas Anymore
photos Courtesy of TAMU
J
ulie Hinrichsen and Russell Dyke
had every intention of keeping
Tapestry Tenacious Juell, one of
their prized collie puppies born May 23,
2006, at their Juell Collies kennel, as a
show dog. In fact, the AKC-registered
puppy, who Hinrichsen and Dyke called
Kelly, had already adjusted to her life
with the couple and their 11 other show
dogs in Topeka, Kan.—she was even
training with the couple’s 14-year-old
niece, Felicia Van Cleave. But that was
before Hinrichsen and Dyke heard from
friends at the Collie Club of America
about Texas A&M’s nationwide search
for a new mascot.
The University’s hunt for a mascot
began in the spring, when a 16-mem-
aggienetwork.com
ber committee was formed of students,
former students, faculty, staff, as well as
members of the Corps of Cadets, athletics and Federation of Texas A&M Mothers’ Clubs. The committee had developed
the following criteria that a candidate
to become the future First Lady of Aggieland must meet: a medium to large
size, healthy, outgoing personality, likes
people and remains at ease in crowds,
not fearful of noise, not highly reactive
and positively motivated. The dog also
needed to be female, at least a one-and-ahalf years old and have a noble or collielike appearance.
Hinrichsen and Dyke volunteered
information to the University about
2-year-old Kelly, a sable and white dog
who eventually wound up on the top of
A&M’s list of preferred mascot candidates, made up of six dogs from across
the country. Still, Hinrichsen, Dyke and
Van Cleave were hesitant to give her up
until they took a trip to campus with
Kelly in early August.
The couple had learned more about the
Reveille tradition through Becky McClintock ’98, a friend who had served as
training director for the Texas Hearing
and Service Dog Association, but it was
the campus trip that convinced them Kelly
would be perfect to fill Reveille VIII’s shoes.
“We both knew of Reveille and
thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be an honor to
get involved in the tradition?’ But we
didn’t truly grasp how
big it was,” Dyke said
in a University press
release. “If it doesn’t
hurt a little to give her
up, Texas A&M is not
getting a good enough
collie for what the University deserves.”
John Busch ’11,
the 2008-09 mascot
corporal, knows he is
experiencing a once-ina-lifetime opportunity.
The Beaumont native
said he is excited about
transitioning Kelly into
the role of Reveille VIII
and introducing her to
Reveille VIII
campus life.
“It’s definitely a transition,” Busch
said. “We’re getting close, developing this
bond, something she’ll remember.”
Reveille VIII is calm and has a great
temperament, Busch said. It’s what
initially attracted the University to her,
he pointed out.
“No barking, no aggression,” Busch
said. “She’s a very calm dog. She wants to
sit on the couch and not the floor. She’s a
sweet girl, and she has the ability to obey
and the ability to learn.”
Reveille VIII will be kept on a tighter
leash, so to speak, than her predecessor.
She will not participate in any event that
is not University-sanctioned, and she
will only be allowed to participate in two
to three events a week, depending on
her mental and physical condition as assessed by her caretakers. All of these are
precautions taken to ensure the health
and quality care of A&M’s newest fivestar general, Busch said.
And the more he’s gotten to know Reveille VIII over the last few months, the
more Busch said he knows the University made the correct selection—a decision
that will satisfy the Aggie family.
“She’s a great fit,” he said. “She’s the
right dog for Texas A&M.”
Krista Smith ’09 is a student writer and
photographer for The Association of Former
Students. To contact her, e-mail KSmith09@
AggieNetwork.com.
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